Saturday, June 7, 2008

 

We woke this morning about 7:30 to the sound of raindrops on the camper.  It was pretty cold in the camper so we decided to have pancakes for breakfast so we could use the stove and get a little heat. All our food was out in the vehicle (campground rules) and so Tim braved the cold and wet to get the stuff we needed. Breakfast was delicious.  After breakfast, we looked outside to see that the rain had changed to snow.  These had to be some of the largest snowflakes that God has ever made. If they were any bigger, they couldn't be called snowflakes; they would have to be called snowballs. Actually these looked like snowballs dropping from the sky.  The snow is very wet so it doesn’t hurt when it hits you; it just splats where it hits.  We were pretty cold this morning so we took showers to warm up and then we headed into town to do laundry in hopes that the rain/snow would let up by the time laundry was done.  It is 34 degrees this morning.

God is so nice.  After laundry, the rain/snow had quit so we went to the Banff Hot Springs.  These springs are sulfur springs so the smell was strong enough that we walked around them quickly.  There is an endangered snail that lives in the springs so we couldn’t feel the water with our hands or anything else.  There was a cave that also had a hot spring in it.  The water in the springs was bluish-green and so clear that we could see the bottom.  

 

We went the Banff Springs Hotel that looked like a huge castle in a fairy-tale.  There was a wedding party getting pictures taken at different places in the Hotel and we all thought the pictures would be beautiful.  This hotel was probably the fanciest hotel that I have ever seen.  It has a balcony overlooking the Cascade Falls on Bow River.  The view was incredible so we decided we needed to get a closer look at those falls.  Before we left the hotel we stopped at the bathrooms and instead of having a women or men’s sign on the door; these bathrooms had signs with pictures of a princess or prince.  What a fun place that was.

 

Next stop was Cascade Falls on Bow River.  The thing that made these falls so cools is that the river is quite wide where the falls are so the water churns and boils like when the tubes at Tuttle Creek are wide open.  It almost makes you dizzy to look down into the waters.  We enjoyed spending time at the falls.

 

When we got back to the campground we fixed grilled stuffed burritos.  We didn’t have shredded cheese but we did have a block of cheddar cheese so Aleesha used a sharp knife and cut thin slices of cheese and then cut the slices into small pieces so it resembled shredded cheese.  What a patient girl.  Chris cut wood with the ax so we could have a fire.  The air here is pretty dry when it is not raining so the wood wasn’t as wet as it would have been at home.  Chris chopped the wood into small pieces so we could start the fire easier.   For dessert we had cherry tarts, which are crescent rolls with cherry pie filling in them (one of Chris’ specialties over the fire) cooked in our sandwich cookers.   Chris has his own special way of cooking his cherry tart and he found a great log to cook it with.  He spends time shaping one end of the log into a point and then he puts foil over the point.  Then he shapes the crescent roll over the foil and cooks it over the fire rotating it slowly like a rotisserie.  When it is golden brown, he takes it off the fire and fills it with cherry pie filling.  It is delicious. 

 

We sat around the campfire until it was dark (which is probably around 11:00) since it was so nice and warm around the fire. 

 

Mileage for the day: 0

Temperature high: 50’s

Camping fee: $36.20

Price for gasoline: $1.30.9/liter